DEPTH

I took a deep breath and looked at the suit the ponies had built for me. A few of them were standing around poking and prodding the heavy synthetic skin. I didn't even hesitate and stepped straight over. It was about as human shaped as they could have gotten, with a massive three port helmet.

I stepped into the boots and slipped my arms into place. A red unicorn walked up to me and started forcing the zipper closed. I stood there and let the ponies work on sealing me into my half metal suit. I felt a heavy rush of air come from above, the helmet was slowly descending into place.

A pony with a hat walked up and watched the helmet closed. "Chris, have fun." He smiled wide. "We're trying this out on you, might move to ponies if you don't die."

I felt the air fill my suit as the helmet was dropped into place and sealed. I was given control of the suit. It moved rigidly, with mechanical joints that whirled and buzzed as I lifted my arms and tested out the movement. I cleared my throat and looked down at the pony. A loud buzz came from the helmet. "You'd better start making more then."

The pony in the hat smiled. "Oh, by the way, there's a button on your suit that'll call Orchid! It kinda sounds like her groan, so she should hear it far a pretty far ways away."

I looked down at the suits. Amongst the various straps and buckles a small panel sat on my arm with a few buttons. The buttons were massive and inlayed into the panel. One read, Orchid. Another, emergency air. Another, lights. I nodded and turned to the airlock in the side of the room. "That just leads to the outside, right?"

The hat pony nodded and walked me over. The bright grease stained room felt a bit awkward with the thick sheet of polymer between my face and the outside world. The tools and workbenches rattled as I stomped through towards the airlock. The ponies started to whistle and cheer as I walked past.

I stepped into the single body drop off and faced the crowd. I really did match the lumbering lobotomite I was dressed as. All I was missing was a rivet gun. The pony in the hat pulled his brim down and pressed a few buttons. "Have fun." The door slammed shut and sealed with a loud waxy whoosh. I flicked on the lights and felt the floor drop out from under me.

I looked down and saw only pale blue earth ten meters down. I held my arms out and slowly fell back down to solid ground. It was like falling through jelly, and with a splashdown like something from a mech movie. I landed with a massive plume of soft fine grain sand kicking up around me. A few glowing creatures scurried away as the dust settled, and I was left in the bottom of the deep ocean.

I held my breath a few moments as the suit groaned. The sound of metal trying desperately to break rattled around the inside of my suit, but never did it falter. The suit didn't want to be, but it would survive against its will. I waited until everything settled, then with one fledgling step, I walked amongst the deep.

The pressure made the movements slow, but didn't stop them. The sandy muddy ground gave way under the boots, but I sunk in deep and kept moving. And with the press of Orchid's button, I watched her spring from the glowing titanium facility and out around into the ocean. The glow of her body, of her antenna, of her eyes and the bits of her mane flashed through the darkness and around towards me.

Orchid, in all her giant form, stood before me. She smiled wide and laid her chin in the mire. "Hi...." Her voice was muffled by the water, but the deep groan carried across well.

I reached out and ran my hand over her nose. She smiled and closed her eyes as I touched her. "Hi there baby girl." I scratched the top of her muzzle and looked her over. "How ya been?"

Orchid stood up and stomped the ground. Bottom dwelling life fled around me as she destroyed the ecosystem, one step at a time. "Good." She looked down at me with a burning gaze. "How long?"

I looked down inside my helmet. "Timer says...about six hours."

Orchid's smile went even wider. "I wanna show you a thing." She reached down and took my arm between her teeth. She tugged me along. "Come on."

I pulled my arm free and stepped back. "No mouth."

Orchid lowered her head into the sand. "No? But you're slow. We wont make it if you're--"

I reached up and pulled myself up over her face. I climbed up onto her muzzle and walked calmly up to her mane. I settled in amongst the waxy set of alien hair and held on. "Go."

Orchid lifted herself up and tried to shake me off. "You alright?"

I looked out at the depth, only the sprawling facility and ten meters ahead were illuminated, the rest was darkness, pure and simple. "I'm fine."

Orchid kicked off the earth and hung in the sea. She swung her tail around and sent us sailing through the water. I suppressed my urge to scream the whole time. She made contact with the ground and hopped upward again. She threw herself like a javelin, letting herself glide just over the floor for long strokes. She looked up and stopped dead. My headlights caught it too. A massive creature with a mouth the size of a bus was stalking overhead.

Orchid let out a long churl. "Whales...he's picking on the whales."

I flipped my lights off and spotted what she was talking about. Further above the darting creature was a pod of large slow moving blobs. I grabbed on tight and slapped Orchid's head. She shook her head and shot up off the sea-floor. The rush of water past me rattled my suit and the pressure gauges weren't too happy either, but nothing ticked over into the red.

Orchid opened her mouth and we both came to a lurching halt. I flung forward and slammed into the creature, my grip on Orchid decimated by the sudden impact. I was quickly righted by the weight in my boots, but all I could do was watch as Orchid's eyes flashed left and right, mixed violet and blue as she tore the half-hidden creature into shreds.

I felt a heavy impact knock me back into the padding of my suit. I pushed forward into the unseen. I spun backwards and managed to flip my lights back on just in time to watch a flipper slip like a knife into the darkness below. I started huffing and wheezing out a sharp chuckle. "Oh fuck." I felt my suit shake as I hit the sea-floor again.

I stumbled back a step before I sunk into a comfortable level in the sand. I held my helmet in place and looked down at my timer. Twenty minutes had passed by. "Holy shit, this is fucked." My accent bled through like crazy, just stopping short of spewing the word cunt from my mouth like the bogan I secretly was. I laughed a high pitched laugh as the top half of a still living wide mouth shark creature slammed a few meters away. It was gulping water and trying to bite me, but without much more than a head and some neck it could only chew on sand. And what few creatures did get within its mouth simply walked out the back of its throat, unmolested.

Orchid slammed down next to the creature and put her hoof on the dying beast's head. She looked down at me, like some sort of horrid statue. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry--"

"That was awesome as fuck!" I held my arms out like an over-excited goalkeeper. "Oh my god!"

Orchid's face went a bit blue as she shifted her hoof on the dying creature's head. "...Thanks." She looked down at the dying beast. "Should I smash it?"

I shook myself inside my suit and walked over. Crabs and other smaller creatures were already hurrying over and nipping away and the dying tissue. I looked up and shook my head. "No, I think you just made a little home for someponies."

Orchid pulled her hoof away and stepped back. "What? Homes?" She ducked down and looked into the gasping creature's mouth. "...Little firebugs."

I walked up and took hold of one of the dying beast's teeth. Its eyes flashed down at me as it jammed its mouth shut over my hand. I held my breath as I watched my hand disappear into the creature's mouth. "Fuck--fuck no!" I pulled my hand back and found only a tiny nick in the metal bracer around my wrist. "Oh...oh thank god." I put my hand against my heart and took a deep breath. I laughed softly and stepped back as the creature's now broken teeth bled. "Oooh, you prick." I watched a lamprey wiggle past my head and hook onto the dying monster.

I stopped for a few seconds and looked around. I was surrounded by beautiful bio luminescent life, a giant mare, my surrogate daughter, and beasts that would make Lovecraft shit himself. I let out a long sigh and looked up at Orchid. "Good girl--"

I felt something tap the back of my helmet. Orchid let out a long growl as I swung around to empty water. Orchid stepped out over me and growled. "Stop it."

I looked up at Orchid and glared. "Orchid, what did you just say to me?"

Orchid scrambled back. "Nothing!"

"That's what I--" I felt something poke my helmet again. "What the fuck!?" I swung around to empty water again.

Orchid growled louder and bared her teeth. "Stop it!" She stomped her hoof next to me and put a wall of sand over my front. "Stop!"

I covered my faceplate and swung around. "Orchid!" I stepped back and felt something knock against my helmet. I turned around and found a light blue mare sitting in my view. She stared at me, locking eyes. She tapped my helmet with a hoof and wiggled her backside, really just one long dolphin style tail.

She smiled at me. "Hi." Bubbles flew up from her mouth.

I lifted my hand up. "Uh...hi...." I turned and looked at Orchid. "Orchid, what is this?"

Orchid snorted a few bubbles into the water. "Merpony."

The apparent merpony shook her head. "Sorta. I prefer Mici." She leaned in and pressed her cheek against my helmet. "You look funny." She looked up to Orchid. "Are you the pony taking care of the giant?"

I tried to scratch my head. "Uh, yes?"

The merpony nodded. "Thanks." She hugged my helmet and pressed her underside against my faceplate. "Free food and less dying has been really awesome for us!" She let go and floated back. "Didn't really have anypony to thank until now."

I stared at the floating blue creature. "Uh...am I high?" I looked back to Orchid. She shook her head and dropped an antenna between me and the blue mare. I looked her over and instantly figured where they got Orchid's designs from. "Hmm.... Guess not." I looked her up and down, only two forelegs. "Are you amphibian or just--"

The merpony nodded, her thick bushy mane wiggled around behind her. "I can go on land, but its no fun. Really super cold up there."

I looked the merpony up and down. "So...how long have you been living here?"

The merpony laughed and pressed a hoof against my helmet. "Here?! Oh heck no. I live in the caves with everypony else. Why would I live out here? It sucks out here."

I looked back to Orchid. "Huh." I looked back to Mici. She smiled at me, her teeth slightly sharper than a normal pony, but no where near as sharp as Orchid's. "...You wanna come visit?"

Mici popped her eyebrows up. "That a date?" She laughed loudly. "I'm jo--"

"Yes."

Mici stopped laughing and wiggled her tail around. "Oh...." She shoved back off my shoulders to distance herself. "Uh...." She paddled in the water a bit and laughed. Bubbles floated up as she did. "What are you exactly? Some kinda weird pony in a suit?"

"Human. We're kinda newish." I held my hand up and flexed my fingers. "Plenty of normal ponies back home though."

Mici bit her lower lip. "Um...you said-- You're a really weird pony." She tapped the top of my helmet with a hoof. "You just asked me like you--"

I shrugged. "You've got a cute face. And I have to imagine everypony back at home would want to meet you."

Mici wiggled her tail again. "Um...." She swam around me and hugged around my head. "You got crackers? I had crackers from an old box once...."

I looked up to Orchid and she looked at the pony pseudo piggybacking me. "Orchid. You wanna go home?"

Orchid scratched the seafloor and tapped her hoof against it. "No...."

"Rake time?"

Orchid's ears perked up towards me. "Rake time."

I nodded and watched as she scooped me up against her hooves. "Get this weirdo settled in and I'll go find a rake, okay?"

Orchid snorted again, a few bubbles burst against my head. "Fine...."

The merpony around my head pulled tight as Orchid braced herself. "Wait, so what-- oh Celestia!" She clenched hard around my helmet as Orchid bounded over the seafloor.